GOP accidentally helps trans kids

Hey, Meteor readers,

Yesterday, I stayed up quite late (9:30 pm) watching the 45th season premiere of Survivor, and my body hasn’t quite recovered from listening to Emily talk her way into the Crappiest Player Hall of Fame. But it’s always worth it to see Jeff Probst, who is aging like fine Italian wine. Drop the skincare routine, Probst!

In today’s newsletter, we explain what led to an unexpected win in Montana, confront the “childcare cliff,” and share some weekend reading.

Calling it an early night,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

Horse dewormers for trans rights (somehow): Yesterday morning, a Montana judge blocked SB99, the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth—the same ban that State Representative Zooey Zephyr spoke out against last spring, leading to her censure and removal from the House floor. Many parties can be thanked for this win, among them the relentless Zephyr and the Montana citizens who showed up in force to testify against the bill. But one factor might surprise you: Republicans’ fondness for using ivermectin, a horse dewormer, to treat COVID-19.

In the same session that saw SB99 become law, Montana Republicans also passed SB422, protecting people’s “right to try” experimental medication not approved by the FDA (such as ivermectin) as long as they—or, if they’re a minor, their parent/legal guardian—have given informed consent.

Now listen: Is using ivermectin to treat COVID-19 safe? Survey says no. But in the interest of bodily autonomy, and as someone who’s been receiving gender-affirming medical care for some time now, I’m all for a “you do yours, I’ll do mine” policy when it comes to what we choose to put in our bodies.

So why, for these legislators, does informed consent and the “right to try” medication apply to one drug but not another?

Zephyr noted this glaring hypocrisy back when SB422 was first introduced. Thankfully, the court agreed: Missoula County District Judge Jason Marks, who was appointed by a Democratic governor, wrote in his decision yesterday that these two laws together allow parents to give consent for their child’s medical treatments “regardless of efficacy or risk…unless the minor is transgender.” He ended up concluding the same thing Zephyr did: that “the purported purpose given for SB99 is disingenuous.”

Right wing legislators’ cherry-picking embrace of bodily autonomy is well-documented; they love it when it comes to the right to refuse vaccines or wearing masks, but hate it when it comes to any right exercised by trans or pregnant people. So it’s a real treat to see that, for once, the courts aren’t buying it.

—Bailey Wayne Hundl

AND: 

• Hot Labor Summer is rolling into Labor Spice Autumn™ with the movement’s latest victory: After holding 450 strikes over two years, fast food workers in California are now entitled to $20 an hour under the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, which was signed into law today.

• A group of young activists is suing 32 countries over their roles in the climate crisis. The lawyer representing the group noted that “it’s within the power of states to do vastly more to adjust their emissions, and they are choosing not to do it.”

• ICYMI: Wednesday night was the second Trump-less Republican presidential debate. We’ll cut through the mistruths to highlight this doozy from New Jersey’s pre-eminent teacher-hating former governor, Chris Christie, who accused President Biden of “sleeping with a member of the teachers union”…lifelong educator Dr. Jill Biden, aka his wife. Chris, there’s people that are dying.

• At the end of this month, the U.S. will find itself at the foot of what advocates and politicians are calling a “childcare cliff.” That’s the day pandemic-era federal funds specifically designated for child care programs will expire, “closing a pipeline to $24 billion,” Fast Company reports. What does this mean for working parents? The closure of 70,000 daycares across the country. Parents will now have to figure out how much of their already overstretched budgets will be going to more expensive child care options—if they have any options left at all. (And yes, I did type this with my seven-month-old on my lap as Ms. Rachel played in the background.)

• If that last item doesn’t paint a clear enough picture of how bad the state of child care is, allow me to draw your attention to two horrific incidents at home-based daycares this month. In the Bronx, one child died from fentanyl poisoning after the drug had been stored near nap mats and under the floorboards. Then, earlier this week, investigators found that a Harlem daycare center was being used as a 3-D print shop for ghost guns (real guns made from plastic and without serial numbers to make them untraceable). How many toddlers need to die or be endangered before we start talking seriously about safe, federally funded, universal child care options?

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WEEKEND READS 📚

On censorship: In America, most book bans are driven by a group of 11 people. Jennifer Petersen, a Virginia mom, is one of them. She has already challenged 73 books—and she has no plans to stop. (The Washington Post)

On gender politics: Women and children who fled Afghanistan have been denied entry to the United States in astounding numbers. One family tells their story. (Slate)

On the floor: Get ready for the literal Olympics of breakdancing. (The Athletic)

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